Help Wanted

Below is a piece I came across that I wrote in 2002, recently I've experienced similarly frustrating setbacks in my life and I'm trying to examine how much personal choice overlaps larger economic forces beyond our control. I argued from more of a political framework of analysis then, but now I would see the political as symptomatic of a broader social and cultural underpinning. Here goes:

At the time I write this I am unemployed.
In the age of public confessions, this is a mild one, but it still invites negative stereotypes.
I can already hear that dismissive refrain of - “get a job” .
It infuriates me everytime I hear it, and I am forced to defend my integrity by having to reassure the smug, sadistic fool who utters this line that I am leaving no stone unturned looking for work.
At my age, 36 to be exact, I know that I am not the prime candidate for most labouring jobs, though I continue to apply, and equally, I lack the skills for specialized work. I’m caught in the crevasse of the new economy. I am aware that I made earlier decisions that landed me here. I am aware that I need more training and I intend to go back to school. I refuse to be helpless in this situation.
Being a student of larger events, I have come to the conclusion, however,that we are shaped by global forces as much as we are by personal choices and circumstances.
The developed world has undergone a“ paradigm shift” in recent years. This catchphrase means that the traditional structure of our economy has become outmoded and we’re in a whole new game with a whole new set of rules - somebody else’s rules, I might add.
Governments have responded by shrinking, deregulating and privatizing at a frantic pace in order to seem relevant in a technology based economy. For the shortsighted this is a welcome development, but for others who believe that government plays a balancing role in society, this threatens human and planetary progress.
I grew up in the eighties with the belief that all you needed to do was graduate from post-secondary school and you could simply take your place in the world. Faced with the new reality, this notion seems quite romantic now. Still the old belief system that fosters this kind of hyper-individualism is still very potent in out society.
The Calvinist tradition in our country presumes an individual’s worth is defined by productive labour. This doesn’t have the same resonance nowadays. However, as a member of the jobless “statistic” it s not easy to overcome the sense of shame that to be unemployed reflects moral failure. I have experienced feelings of self-loathing, to resignation ,to disgust at my situation. I sense that I am not alone, that I am among a permanent, growing underclass .
To view it in context, Gordon Campbell like George W. Bush is an employee of big business more so than a servant of the public trust. The Campbell Liberals argue that their attacks are aimed at financing the debt, they convince us with distorted math, but it is a front to cater to the business elite.
In the current economy, getting a decent job feels like winning a lottery draw and holding onto it means working with the ever present fear that you are replaceable.
In the shadow of NAFTA, September 11, and the recent softwood lumber tariff, we are confronted with the fact that we are at the mercy, more than ever, of international forces in B.C.
Campbell’s stubborn,cost-cutting might create a business friendly environment in B.C. but it will mean very little if the services that allow for a decent quality of life aren’t there anymore and therefore as
Unemployed persons, we must resist these feelings of shame and burden. To fall into this mindset absolves the powers-that-be so they can continue their assault on the most needy.
I think it’s important to become aware of the larger context in which we’re all living even though when you’re out of work it’s hard to get beyond the momentary and immediate. For the next few years the unemployed in this province will have to get used to being out in the cold unless we become informed and organized and defend our rights to live and work in a civil society.